ACW

Saturday, 18 February 2017

On Reading, by Wendy H. Jones

Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body Ecclesiastes 12:12

Our usual blogger can't do the slot today, so I'm stepping in. As well as being a member of Association of Christian Writers, to whom this blog belongs, I am also a member of The Scottish Fellowship of Christian Writers. At a recent Fellowship conference we are asked to write for 5 minutes on the verse above. This was my attempt on the day.

"Times are changing."

"Nothing is the same."

"It wasn't like that in my day."

These words have echoed down the centuries in one shape or another. Whilst they can be applied to any situation, I would venture to say that they are particularly true when talking about literature. Not just books, but the written word in every form. As a child, as I remember, books were treasured. A visit to the library, or a book for a birthday or Christmas, was a wondrous occasion. This was a time of excitement, knowing you would hold that one perfect book in your hands. Everyone waited in anticipation for the next book in a series to appear.

In some ways that time has mainly gone. The dawn of the digital age and the internet means there are hundreds of thousands of books to be bought at the touch of a button. Reading can be done in a myriad of ways - Kindle, Kobo, iBooks, Wattpad, Audible, and of course paperback and hardback. The poor hardback trails behind, a relic of a bygone era. Information comes at a dizzying rate, through blogs, Websites, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and many other social media platforms. Reading on mobile phones is fast becoming the norm. The growth of mobile phone usage in developing countries is driving the thirst for reading digitally.

Where does that leave us as writers? Well that, my friends, is a story for another day and another blog. If you have any thoughts on this please share in the comments below.

Wendy H. Jones is the author of the best selling DI Shona McKenzie Mystery series of crime novels set in Dundee. Killer's Crew, the fifth booking the series was released in November, 2016. Dagger's Curse, the first book in her Fergus and Flora, Young Adult Mystery series was released on 10th September, 2016. She also has one non fiction book, Power Packed Book Marketing: Sell More Books. She is currently working on the first book in the Cass Claymore Mysteries